In Brief
The State of Uttar Pradesh challenged the High Court's acquittal of Subhash @ Pappu for murder and rioting. The Supreme Court partly allowed the appeal, setting aside the acquittal. Based on the victim's dying declaration confirming the accused's presence in an unlawful assembly of six to seven persons that attacked him with deadly weapons, the Court held the accused liable under Section 304 Part I r/w Section 149 IPC (culpable homicide, not murder, as death resulted from septicemia thirty days later) and under Section 148 IPC (rioting with deadly weapons). The Court held that defective charge omitting Section 149 does not vitiate conviction if its ingredients are implicit, and that the number of persons charged is irrelevant if the actual participation in the unlawful assembly is proven.
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